Don’t Panic: Keyboards

A reader writes: My keyboard is playing up. I suspect dust and crumbs have got in. What’s the best way to clean it?

My keyboard is playing up. I suspect dust and crumbs have got in. What’s
the best way to clean it?TJ, Gloucester

A good brush and shake followed by a session with a long-nozzled vacuum
cleaner will help remove any loose crumbs and chocolate flakes. (You eat at
your keyboard? Tsk.) But for more stubborn grime you may have to invest in a
£7.99 tub of Cyber Clean (tinyurl.com/6j7bo52),
a slimy substance that picks up muck after you squeeze it into gaps where
fingers cannot reach.

Do not be tempted into buying a dinky little vacuum cleaner powered through
the USB port: these are too weak to do any serious cleaning. And do not try
to remove any keys — especially if we’re talking about a laptop, where they
are particularly easy to damage. Nigel Powell

I keep getting emails from someone called Roger McKenna, who offers to fix
my